Mike Carter's Blog for Wine Packaging, Design & Marketing Insights

Warnings to be made mandatory on UK wine labels

According to website School of Prophets – Australia mandatory warning labels on alcohol packaging are compulsory in 15 countries, including Sweden, USA and France.

And www.grape.co.za reports that the leading representative of the UK alcoholic drinks industry, the Wine & Spirits Trade Association, has signed an agreement with the British government to voluntarily carry health warnings on wine, beer and spirits labels. This follows closely on the French move, which becomes compulsory there in October.

South African producers will have to take note.

As with the French, the highest concern is for alcohol consumption by pregnant women, and the idea is to use the same visual warning as the French. Other proposed information on the labels will be the drinkâ€™s unit content, per glass and per bottle, and for men to stick to three to four, and women to two to three units per day. It will also give the link to the Drinksaware website.

The illustration depicts a mock-up wine label prepared for an 2005 Australian alcohol warning label campaign.